Emily Litella
| Emily Litella | |
|---|---|
| Saturday Night Livecharacter | |
 Radner (right) dressed as Emily Litella withRaquel Welchduring a 1976 SNL rehearsal | |
| First appearance | segment "Looks At Books" SNL November 15, 1975 |
| Created by | Gilda Radner |
| Portrayed by | Gilda Radner |
| In-universe information | |
| Based on | Real-life person: Elizabeth "Dibby" Clementine Gillies |
Emily Litellais a fictional character created and performed bycomedianGilda Radnerin a series of appearances onSaturday Night Live.[1]Based on a person in her early life, Emily Litella was a popular character in Radner's comedy repertoire.
Premise
[edit]Emily Litella is an elderly woman with a hearing problem who appeared 26 times onSNL'sWeekend Updateop-ed segmentbetween November 15, 1975 (Season 1) and December 17, 1977 (Season 3).[2][3]Attired in a frumpy dress, sweater andLisa Loopnereyeglasses, Litella was introduced with professional dignity by the news anchors, who could sometimes be seen cringing slightly in anticipation of themalapropismsthey knew would follow. Thesesketcheswere, in part, a parody of theFairness Doctrine,which at the time required broadcasters in theUnited Statesto present opposing viewpoints on public issues.
Litella would peer through her reading glasses and, in the character's high-pitched, warbly voice, would read a prepared statement in opposition to aneditorialthat the TV station had supposedly broadcast. Litella would become increasingly agitated as her statement progressed. Midway in her commentary, it became apparent to the anchor and the audience that Litella had misheard or misunderstood the subject of the editorial to which she was responding. A typical example:
What is all this fuss I hear about the Supreme Court decision on a "deaf" penalty? It's terrible! Deaf people have enough problems as it is![4]
The news anchor would interrupt Litella to point out her error, along the lines, "That'sdeathpenalty,Ms. Litella, notdeaf...death."[4]Litella would wrinkle her nose, say something like, "Oh, that's very different," then meekly turn to the camera and say, smiling, "Never mind!"[5]
When Litella played against news anchorChevy Chase(whom she often called "Cheddar Cheese"[6]), he would be somewhat sympathetic to her. After Chase leftSaturday Night Life,Jane Curtintook over the anchor role and provided a more adversarial foil. Often, she would scold Litella, "Every week you come on and you get it wrong," to which Litella would reply, "Bitch!"[5]
Appearances
[edit]| Air date | Litella malapropism | Actual phrase |
|---|---|---|
| December 13, 1975 | Busting schoolchildren | Bussing schoolchildren[7][8] |
| December 20, 1975 | Firing the handicapped | Hiring thehandicapped[2][9] |
| January 24, 1976 | Saving Soviet jewelry | SavingSoviet Jewry[10][11][12] |
| January 31, 1976 | Eagle Rights Amendment | Equal Rights Amendment[7] |
| February 14, 1976 | Cankerresearch | Cancerresearch |
| February 28, 1976 | Deaf penalty | Death penalty |
| March 13, 1976 | Conserving natural racehorses | Conservingnatural resources[13] |
| April 17, 1976 | Presidentialerections | Presidential elections[14] |
| May 8, 1976 | Violinson television | Violence on television[13] |
| May 29, 1976 | Flop story | Top story |
| September 18, 1976 | Crustaceanhijackers | Croatian hijackers[15] |
| December 11, 1976 | Unisexdonations | UNICEFdonations |
| January 15, 1977 | MakingPuerto Ricoasteak | Making Puerto Rico a state[16][17] |
| January 22, 1977 | Burningtissues | Burning issues |
| Transcendental medication | Transcendental meditation | |
| Maguda triangle | Bermuda Triangle | |
| Airfagsin cars | Airbagsin cars | |
| (unspecified vulgarity) | Duck | |
| Fleaelections in China / Flea erections | FreeElections in China | |
| February 20, 1977 | Liverboats | Riverboats[7] |
| March 12, 1977 | Endangered feces | Endangered species[5] |
| April 9, 1977 | "(You Make Me Feel Like) a National Woman" | "(You Make Me Feel Like) a Natural Woman" |
| April 23, 1977 | Air solution | Air pollution |
| "I Will Swallow Him" | "I Will Follow Him" | |
| May 14, 1977 | Jeep | beep |
| May 21, 1977 | Stella Abzug | Bella Abzug |
| Cat in the ring | Hat in the ring | |
| December 17, 1977 | Mr.Adenoid | Mr.Aykroyd |
| Jan / Miss Clayton | Jane Curtin | |
| sst | SST | |
| February 10, 1979 | Porkyand Bess | Porgy and Bess |
| Rodeo and Juliet | Romeo and Juliet |
History
[edit]Radner based Litella on her childhood nanny, Elizabeth Clementine Gillies, known as "Dibby", who was allegedly hard of hearing.[18][19] Therunning gag"Never mind" became a lightheartedcatchphraseof the era.[20][21]
In her first appearance onSNL,the character of Emily Litella was an author who appeared as an interview subject on a show called "Looks At Books". Though she had the same wavery voice and somewhat frumpy wardrobe as she would in later episodes, Litella did not appear to have a hearing problem in this appearance. All but one of the subsequentSNLappearances by Litella were at the newsdesk, and featured the by-now much more familiar "editorial reply" iteration of the character. In the eleventh episode of season four, on February 10, 1979, with guest hostessCicely Tyson,the final comedy sketch was called "Emily Litellavision", and featured Litella hosting a staging of a song fromPorky and Bess,herPorky Pig–based mis-hearing ofPorgy and BessbyGeorgeandIra GershwinandDuBose Heyward,withGarrett Morrissinging a song to Tyson with added stuttering, and the orchestra shown wearing pig masks.
Outside ofSaturday Night Live,Radner played the character briefly onThe Muppet Show.At the top of that episode, Miss Litella is discoveredbackstagebystage managerScooter,where she is vociferously complaining about the indignity of her appearing in something so silly as "The Muffin Show", whereupon Scooter gently persuades Miss Litella that she would be appearing on "The Muppet Show", not "The Muffin Show". After hearing this reassurance, she withdraws her objection, and meekly apologizes to Scooter by saying, "Never mind."
The character also appeared in Radner's 1979 one-womanoff-Broadwayshow,Gilda Live,in which Litella took a job as asubstitute teacherinBedford-Stuyvesant,replacing a teacher who had been a victim of a stabbing by one of his students, which put him in the hospital. Miss Litella further cautioned her new students to be very careful where they put their toes, as the regular teacher's "stubbing" was the third such "stubbing", as Miss Litella put it, at the school that week alone; and that the "stubbings" must be pretty serious, in order to have put their teacher in hospital indefinitely.[citation needed]
A similar character, Anthony Crispino (played byBobby Moynihan), made his first appearance on aWeekend UpdateinSeason 35,and became a recurring character.[22]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^Barone, Michael(September 28, 2005)."At NASA, an Emily Litella Moment".U.S. News & World Report.RetrievedSeptember 15,2018.
- ^abFruchter, Rena (January 17, 2013).I'm Chevy Chase... and You're Not.London: Random House. p. 199.ISBN978-0-7535-2114-4.
- ^"Emily Litella, played by Gilda Radner".SNL Archive.RetrievedApril 8,2014.
- ^abBaskin, Edie (1977). Anne P. Beatts (ed.).Saturday Night Live.John Head. Avon Books.ISBN978-0-380-01801-7.
- ^abcShales, Tom; Miller, James Andrew (November 16, 2008).Live From New York: An Uncensored History Of Saturday Night Live.New York, NY: Little, Brown. p. 125.ISBN978-0-316-04582-7.
- ^"Joey the dachshund: 'OK, OK, I get it. I'm short. Must you keep reminding me?'".Saint Paul Pioneer Press.Bulletin Board. 8 November 2011.
- ^abc"Amusing Monday: Recalling SNL's Emily Litella | Watching Our Water Ways".11 January 2010.
- ^"Watch Saturday Night Live Highlight: Weekend Update: Emily Litella on Busting School Children - NBC".
- ^"SNL Transcripts: Candice Bergen: 12/20/75 - SNL Transcripts Tonight".8 October 2018.
- ^Shales, Tom (22 May 1989). "The Afterglow of Gilda Radner; The Nutty but Nice Graduate of Saturday Night".The Washington Post.B01.
{{cite news}}:CS1 maint: location (link) - ^"Soviet Jewelry".
- ^"SNL Transcripts: Peter Cook & Dudley Moore: 01/24/76: Weekend Update with Chevy Chase - SNL Transcripts Tonight".8 October 2018.
- ^abSorensen, Roy A. (January 22, 2002).Pseudo-Problems: How Analytic Philosophy Gets Done.New York, NY: Taylor & Francis. p. 108.ISBN978-0-203-04868-9.
- ^Robinson, Peter M. (2010).The Dance of the Comedians: The People, the President, and the Performance of Political Standup Comedy in America.Amherst & Boston: Univ of Massachusetts Press. pp. 200–.ISBN978-1-55849-785-6.
- ^"Watch Saturday Night Live Highlight: Weekend Update 9-18-76, Part 2 of 2 - NBC".
- ^Malloy, Merrit (August 30, 1990).The Quotable Quote Book.New York, NY: Carol Publishing Group. p. 174.ISBN978-0-8065-1220-4.
- ^Saltzman, David A. (March 2008). "Never Mind".Life Insurance Selling.83(3): 112–114.OCLC2906328.
- ^Jackson, Kenneth T. (1998).The Scribner Encyclopedia of American Lives: 1986-1990.Charles Scribner's Sons. p. 718.ISBN0684804913.Retrieved2016-09-04.
- ^Radner, Gilda (June 2, 2015).It's Always Something.Simon and Schuster.ISBN978-1501126635.Retrieved2016-09-04.
- ^Robinson, Marc (2002).Brought to You in Living Color.Wiley. p. 134.ISBN9780471090168.Retrieved2016-09-04.
- ^Stein, Ellin (June 24, 2013).That's Not Funny, That's Sick: The National Lampoon and the Comedy Insurgents Who Captured the Mainstream.W. W. Norton. p. 298.ISBN9780393074093.Retrieved2016-09-04.
- ^Busis, Hillary (December 7, 2014)."Saturday Night Live recap: 'James Franco and Nicki Minaj'".Entertainment Weekly.Retrieved2016-09-04.